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Mark Vaughn has been a journalist at Autoweek, an affiliate of Automotive News, since 1989.

Are cars art? Is art cars? The organizers behindArt Baselbelieve so and held a big celebration last week of the car as art form in their home city. Called Grand Basel, the show featured 113 cars, most of them beautiful, a couple ugly, and about a quarter of them for sale.

You may have heard of the Art Basel shows that have taken place around the world since 1970. Those have all been art gatherings, not car shows. At Art Basels, clients, gallery owners and attendees all gathered to view thousands of works of art, buy and sell a few, and schmooze. In addition to the founding city of Basel, Switzerland, there have been Art Basels in Miami and Hong Kong and, most recently, an Art Basel Cities Week in Buenos Aires. The gatherings include more than just art exhibits, incorporating “…a number of new initiatives, each dedicated to fortifying the art world’s key players.”

With this new idea, Art Basel is fortifying not just the traditional art world, but the collector car world’s key players -- and cars -- and maybe making a modest profit while selling an occasional car. The name Grand Basel helps distinguish the car show from the art shows. Last week was the first Grand Basel, held in, yes, Basel, Switzerland, where it all started almost 50 years ago. The bold new exhibit featured cars from all over Europe, displayed on almost 8 acres of space in raised, purpose-built “frames” that incorporated perfect lighting to display the cars to their best effect.

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The BMW M1 R.

The 113 cars included both old and new, but mostly old -- or, rather, classic. There were a lot of generally accepted great cars: a Maserati Ghibli Spyder, Iso Grifo, Ferrari275 GTB/C, De Tomaso Pantera and Astons Martin DB3 and DB5, among many others (click through all the galleries to see our favorites).

There were new old cars like the Linea Diamante by Gio Ponti, designed 65 years ago at Carrozzeria Touring but just now being shown in concept form; the Delta Integrale Futurista by Automobili Amos, “a restored and reimagined version of the iconic Italian hot hatch using contemporary materials and technologies; and the Fiat 500 Spiaggina by Garage Italia, “a new car built to the same principles of the Fiat Jolly but brought up to date.”

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Giugiaro's Corvair Testudo

And there was an 80th birthday party for Giogetto Giugiaro that featured nine of his great designs, from the BMW M1 R to the Corvair Testudo Coupe. There was even a Giugiaro-designed Fiat Panda.

“We promised that Grand Basel was not just another car show, and guests to our first fair in Basel understand that this promise was kept,” said global director Mark Backe.

Indeed, 12,000 guests saw the exhibit between Sept. 6-9 and so far, there don’t seem to be any complaints. Don’t worry if you missed it, as Grand Basel –- the car show this time –- will travel to Miami Feb. 22-24 and to Hong Kong sometime in May. The cars presented then will cater to each new location. So maybe there’ll be muscle cars in Miami (just guessing here, no word on content yet). The “frames” and the format of Grand Basel may represent a whole new way of showing and selling cars. It could turn the traditional Concours d’Elegance or auction on its chrome-polished head. Or it may just be a cool and fun new kind of car show/showroom. Either way, it’s a good thing for car collectors and fans.

“It’s so important to show the shape of a car as it was intended, as a masterpiece or work of art,” said Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s senior vice president for design. “These presentation frames are great at simulating contemplation -- normally we’re used to seeing cars in noisy and chaotic environments. But here, there’s nothing but the car, its name and its date. There are no distractions.”